Why This Restaurant Left a Note on a Drunk Woman’s Windshield

Let’s have an honest conversation: how many of you out there have, at one point in your life, gotten behind the wheel after consuming one too many? It’s not something to be proud of, but plenty of drivers have made the terrible call to roll the dice and put innocent lives at risk.

In fact, according to MADD’s statistics, in 2013 alone, 28.7 MILLION people admitted to driving under the influence. It’s an almost unconscionable number, but luckily there are so many individuals out there who are doing their best to keep these rates down.

One business, in particular, that does its part to keep drunk drivers off the road is Original Joe’s in Sherwood Park, Alberta, Canada. For the past year or so, the managing partner of the restaurant, Jay McLean, has been quietly leaving notes on the windshields of cars parked overnight in the business’ lot.

Raymond Shobe via Flickr

Instead of calling a tow truck or leaving a “nastygram”, Original Joe’s offers the owner of the car free chicken wings as a reward for calling a sober ride. How cool is that?!

Paula Grzelak-Schultz was one of the recipients of the note, and she was so impressed by the owner’s forward-thinking and generosity that she decided to take a snapshot of the letter and post it to her Facebook page. Her note reads:

Dear Original Joe’s Sherwood Park Guest,

Just wanted to thank you for leaving your car parked overnight. I’m not sure if you had consumed alcohol at our restaurant or not, but we wanted to thank you for not drinking and driving. Enclosed is voucher good for 1lb of our delicious chicken wings. Please accept this as a thank you for being responsible. Life is valuable, have a great weekend.

In her post, Paula explained to her friends and family that she had, in fact, consumed alcohol that night. Being the responsible citizen that she is, she took the risk of leaving her car in the restaurant’s lot and Uber’d home.

Since her original post back in October of last year, Paula has received thousands upon thousands of likes for sharing her story, but, since this IS social media after all, she did have to write a short update to address some of the “haters out there” who were accusing the owners of Original Joe’s of using their good deed as “viral marketing.”

Not surprisingly, along with the positive reactions filling the comments section, there was also quite a bit of criticism that was hurled at both Paula and the owners of the restaurant. Luckily, she’s a cool-headed gal, and has made it her mission to diffuse any negativity. Good for you—always stick up for what’s right, Paula!

To get the full story behind this restaurant’s unique approach to combating drunk driving, be sure to check out Inspire More’s article here. We hope other businesses will decide to follow suit in the future!

What do you think of this restaurant’s take on deterring drunk driving? Do you think more businesses should adopt the same policy? Has your life been affected by a drunk driver? Tell us all about your thoughts and experiences in the comments section below!